Tycoon behind clown call jailed 18 years for graft

A tycoon who called President Xi Jinping a clown and criticized his handling of the coronavirus outbreak has been jailed for 18 years for corruption, bribery and embezzlement of public funds.

Ren Zhiqiang - once among the Communist Party's inner circle - disappeared from the public eye in March, shortly after penning an essay lambasting Xi's pandemic response.

His outspokenness had earned the former chairman of state-owned property developer Huayuan Group the nickname "Big Cannon."

Yesterday's verdict said Ren embezzled almost 50 million yuan (HK$57 million) in public funds and accepted bribes worth 1.25 million yuan, according to a statement from the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court.

It said the 69-year-old "voluntarily and truthfully confessed all his crimes" and would not appeal the court's decision.

He was also fined 4.2 million yuan.

The verdict said Ren also "abused his power" in his role at Huayuan Group, which caused more than 116 million yuan in losses to the state-owned holding company and more than 53 million yuan worth of property losses for the group.

The party's disciplinary watchdog launched an investigation into Ren in April, and the trial opened at a Beijing court on September 11 with a handful of supporters outside and a heavy police presence.

In his essay, Ren, without naming Xi, wrote: "This epidemic has revealed the fact that the party and government officials only care about protecting their own interests, and the monarch only cares about protecting their interests and core position.

"Standing there was not an emperor showing off his new clothes, but a clown stripped of clothes who insisted on being an emperor."

Ren's influential blog on Weibo attracted millions of followers before his account was closed by authorities in 2016 after he repeatedly called for greater freedom of the press.

The son of a former vice commerce minister and a party member for decades before he was expelled in July, Ren was well connected with party elites.

He wrote in his memoir that he had been friends with vice president and former anti-corruption chief Wang Qishan since they were teenagers, when Wang was assigned by their school to mentor the younger Ren.